Bahrain court upholds death sentences

Bahrain court upholds death sentences
Special court upholds death sentences for two men convicted of killing policemen during anti-government demonstrations.
Last Modified: 22 May 2011 12:09

The death sentences are only the third in more than 30 years issued against Bahraini citizens [Al Wefaq Party]

A Bahrain emergency appeals court has upheld death sentences for two men found guilty of killing police officers during recent unrest in the island kingdom. Human rights activists said that punishments given to Ali Abdullah Hassan al-Singace and Abdul Aziz Abdul Redha Ibrahim Hussein in Sunday’s court rulings were designed to prevent more protests.

Qasim Hassan Mattar Ahmed and Saeed Abdul Jalil Saeed, two other men who were among the four initially sentenced to death on April 28, had their sentences reduced to life imprisonment, the Bahraini state news agency said.

The report did not say when the two executions would be carried out, but Mohammed Ahmed, a Manama-based legal expert, said they would first need to be approved by Bahrain’s king. The appeals, like the trial before it, were heard in a special security court presided over by civil and military judges. It was set up under emergency laws implemented in March during a government crackdown on the Shia-led protests.

Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, questioned the ruling.

“This is a political case and it is aimed at stopping the protests,” he said by telephone. “It is believed that they were targeted because of their (political) activities.”

He said one of the two people sentenced to death had a full-length cast on his left leg when the killing took place.

“The man had a broken leg and was moving with crutches, how could he drive a car?” he added.

A hospital source said in March that at least two of four Bahraini policemen killed during the protests had been run over by cars.

The security court is separately trying 21 mostly Shia opposition leaders and political activists accused of plotting against the state. It last week sentenced a prominent Shia cleric and eight others to 20 years in prison for the alleged kidnapping of a police officer. …more